


Limitless

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Holly's Round Six Trope Bingo Card [19]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 06:50:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7303939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's nothing more dangerous than two people that are willing to burn the world down to keep the other one safe.</p>
<p>Jim Kirk and Leonard McCoy reflect on what they are willing to do for each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Limitless

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my Round Six Trope Bingo Card.

Jim doesn't like to think about what Bones did to save him after Khan had nearly destroyed their home. He's always known that Bones would do just about anything to keep him safe, but he'd assumed that that only went as far as the bounds of medicine. That hit only went as far as the bound of science. That he would keep to his ethics. Being proven wrong in such spectacular fashion had been. Well.

It had been disorienting at first, but. Well. As he'd looked up at Bones from that hospital bed two days after he'd woken. As he'd looked over at Bones through the wide windows of the rehab room two weeks after he'd woken. As he'd looked down at Bones, splayed out in Jim's bed two months after he'd woken. Well.

Well, it hadn't been a surprise, had it?

Because Bones loves as fiercely as he does everything else in his life. He loves people and he protects people and he fights for people and he saves people and he loves loves loves so fiercely that Jim doesn't know how he'd ever missed it. Doesn't know how he fell into the trap that Bones has so skillfully woven of his image as a misanthrope. Doesn't know how he got so distracted by the visions of a friendship between another him and another Spock and missed what was right in front of him.

Doesn't know how he missed everything Bones is.

As he lies beside Bones, fingers sliding through his hair, Jim vows never to let Bones suffer like that again. He won't stop jumping in with both feet, but damn if he won't look first.

And he'll stay safe. Because he knows, as sure as he knows that Bones is the reason he's still breathing ( _breathing again_ , his traitorous mind whispers), that Bones won't survive losing him. So he'll stay safe, and, above all, he'll keep Bones safe. Because without Bones, nothing means anything.

\----

Leonard McCoy could probably take the whole ship down with a carefully placed hand or a particularly piercing word. It's a thought that he thinks many men would revel in. He's mostly just terrified.

Mostly.

It's his job to keep everyone on the ship safe, keep them _alive_ , and for all that he knows that he's damn good at his job, he also knows that, in the same way he'd broken the laws of science to save Jim, Jim would do anything to keep him safe and whole.

It terrifies Leonard, sometimes, to think of what Jim would have let happen to Carol on that planetoid if she hadn't kept her wits about her and saved both their lives. He wakes up more than once, drenched in a cold sweat, a countdown on his lips and visions of blood and death behind his eyelids. He's jerked awake more than once only for Jim to roll over in bed and wrap his arms loosely around Leonard's waist and murmur, "Just a dream, Bones…. G'back t'sleep."

Leonard's never told Jim what those dreams are about, and Jim's never asked. Then again, Leonard's never asked about the nights Jim wakes up and slips out of bed, silent as anything, and comes back with strong tea laced thickly with honey, which Leonard knows from the one time he'd slipped it from Jim's hands and tried it. The strangled laugh that had rung from Jim's throat had more than made up for the unexpected taste, but honestly it's one of those things that they just don't talk about.

Like Leonard's constant fear that the power he has over the captain is one day going to bring down the ship. It keeps him up at night more often than he cares to admit.

\----

They're a danger and a disaster waiting to happen, but as long as they keep each other afloat, there's nothing in the universe that can stop them. And, really, what better team is there to serve under than a captain with a reason to survive and the doctor that will ensure that he does?

**Author's Note:**

> [Come hang with me on tumblr!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


End file.
